Oak Street Connector

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The Oak Street Connector is a 1.1 mile long freeway section of Route 34 that is located in downtown New Haven, Connecticut. The freeway begins at the junction of Interstate 95 and Interstate 91 and ends at York Street/the Air Rights parking garage.

As originally planned in 1957, the Connector was supposed to extend as a full expressway extending ten miles westward from New Haven to the town of Derby, where it would intersect with Route 8. The current connector section was completed in 1959. The entire project was conceived with a dual purpose: to 1) aid in the urban renewal of New Haven's decayed downtown and to 2) facilitate the east-west flow of traffic between New Haven and its growing western suburbs. Due to its limited completion, only the first goal can be said to have been achieved. Other plans for the highway to be extended into a larger expressway from New Haven to Peekskill, New York were shelved in the mid-1970s, following successful challenges by highway opponents. The right-of-way between Legion Avenue and North Frontage Road in New Haven to Route 10 was preserved for a future extension of the connector past Route 10 to rejoin the existing Route 34 near Route 122 in Orange.

[edit] "Downgrading" the Oak Street Connector

During Connecticut's budget crisis of 2002 the State of Connecticut sold off land acquired for numerous planned expressways throughout the state, including land set aside for extending the Oak Street Connector. Pfizer Pharmiceuticals purchased a portion of the Oak Street Connector right-of-way, and immediately began construction on a $35 million research facility. The Pfizer deal ensured the Oak Street Connector could not be extended beyond its current terminus at the Yale Parking Garage near the New Haven Coliseum.

Following the completion of the Pfizer research facility in 2005, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano and several leaders of local civic groups began pushing CONNDOT to study removing the existing Oak Street Connector and replace it with a four-lane landscaped boulevard with access to local streets and businesses. The boulevard would encompass the existing Oak Street Connector from the I-95/I-91 interchange to its present terminus, and continue west along a widened Legion Avenue (South Frontage Road). After the boulevard is completed, North Frontage Road, which carries the westbound lanes of Route 34, will be returned to the City of New Haven. While this would be a separate project from the reconstruction of the nearby I-91/I-95 interchange, it has been gaining increasing popular support among residents, businessowners and city officials in New Haven.

Currently, the Connecticut Department of Transportation is engaged in a redesign of the entire Interstate 95/91/Oak Street Connector interchange. It is estimated that the Connector handles 73,900 vehicles each day.^[1]

[edit] Exit list

Numbered exits are westbound exits and eastbound entrances only.

Milepost	Exit #	Destination
23.29	3	Route 34 West York Street All traffic must exit
23.46	2	College Street
23.68	1	Church Street Downtown New Haven
24.11		Ramp to I-95 South
24.15		Ramp to I-91 North
24.37		Merge onto I-95 North